Once you’ve saved a voice message on your iPhone, it will stay in the iMessage app. You will have to open the attachments section on the text thread to find it. Just remember that you won’t be able to find the audio text if it has expired – you have 2 minutes after you open the message to save it.
I have a bunch of voice messages saved and wanted to know where I could find them. It didn’t take much digging to find out that they were on my iMessage text threads.
I touched on this, along with how you can export saved audio messages, and some additional information.
Where Do Saved Voice Messages Go On iPhone?
Voice messages are saved and kept in the iPhone messages app. It’s not in a special folder, as it’s saved directly in the message thread that you received it to. You simply have to open the chat, go to Info, and click on Attachments to find it.
As mentioned, though, this was not always the case. Apple used to send saved audio files to the
Voice memos app. They stopped doing this to make the app organized (more on this later on).
How Do You Save Voice Messages on iPhone?
Audio messages don’t automatically save on iOS devices. They get deleted unless you save them. The default setting for them to expire is set to 2 minutes after you’ve opened them.
Here’s how you can
save iPhone audio messages:
- Find the voice message that you want to save on the iMessage app
- Click on the Keep button right below it
- Confirm to keep the audio file
How Do You Export Saved iPhone Audio Messages?
It’s easy to export saved audio messages. However, the process I’m about to run through is just for one voice message. You’ll have to follow it for each one you want to export.
For your iMessage audio files:
- Open the Messages app, and head to the attachments in the specific chat where the audio message is
- Find the particular audio message file
- Long-press it and click on the Copy button from the pop-up menu
- Now open your Notes app and create a new note
- Tap on the blank note, then click on the Paste option
- Your voice message will be exported to the note you created (with an audio player embedded)
Why Are Saved Audio Messages Not Sent to the Voice Memos App Anymore?
This may have been because Apple wanted to organize the Voice memo app, which used to be cluttered. It hosted the saved audio messages sent to it, along with voice memos that users made as well.
Where Do WhatsApp Voice Messages Get Saved?
WhatsApp voice messages automatically get saved on the app itself. There’s no special audio messages section to find. You merely have to head to the specific chat they were sent on, and then scroll up.
Since Whatsapp’s audio messages are only saved here, you’ll lose them for good if you uninstall the app. A quick workaround is to export these saved messages.
Here’s how:
- Launch WhatsApp messages app
- Go to the conversation thread/chat to find the specific audio message
- Hold the message down
- Tap the Share button
- Choose any app you want to send the clip to
What If You Delete An Audio Message By Mistake On Your iPhone?
If you’ve accidentally deleted an important voice message, don’t panic. You should be able to retrieve it from your
iCloud account. However, this also depends on whether you saved the clip in the first place. If not, there’s nothing you can do to get it back.
Here’s how iPhone users can get the file again from their iCloud drive:
- Get on your phone, PC or Mac computer
- Go to the iCloud website, enter your Apple ID credentials and log into your account
- Tap on the Account Settings button right below your profile
- Go to the Advanced section
- Click on the Restore Files option
- Select the file you want to recover
- Click Restore to confirm
Hopefully the iMessage audio file is back now – open the text thread to find it.
Final Thoughts
Saved
audio messages on your iPhone stay in the chat thread (on the messaging app), until you delete them. They used to be on the Voice messages app instead of the Message app, but this was changed on Apple devices to make them more clutter-free.
In case you’re wondering what to do if you accidentally deleted your saved audio messages on iPhone, I touched on this above. I also explained where Whatsapp audio messages go, and how to send audio messages to friends and family.